The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project is looking for hardware donations to help fill out missing parts. We are especially short of hard drives, usb mice and usb keyboards. The following is a short list of what we’re looking for:
High demand
- USB Keyboards (quantity left: 4)
- USB mice (quantity left: 2)
- Serial ATA and Parallel ATA Hard drives 80GB and larger (quantity left: 8)
- DDR (1) RAM between 266MHz-400MHz 512MB and larger sticks (quantity left: 10)
- DDR2 RAM 512MB and larger (quantity left: 0, we actually have about 10 x 256MB DDR2 RAM)
Looking for 80GB+ hard drives, 512MB RAM, notebook adapters
Lower demand
- Notebook power adapters for any kind of notebook in the last 10 years (we’re still rebuilding Pentium II and III notebooks with Linux)
- RD-RAM (128MB and larger) (sometimes called RIMM or RAMBUS RAM though technically RAMBUS is the company that owns the patent on the RAM)
- DVD-Burners both Parallel-ATA and Serial-ATA
- CD-Burners
- Complete sets of speakers (with power adapter)
- Pentium 4 system units running at 1.8GHz+.
- Working 400W+ Power supplies
USB mice and keyboards needed really bad
The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project is listed on the Ontario Electronic Stewardship web site as the ONLY approved reuse/refurbishing site in the Kitchener/Waterloo region of Southwestern Ontario. There are hundreds of OES collection sites, but our project is one of the 20 or so in Ontario that has undergone the more in-depth reuse audit. We’re also part of a larger not-for-profit organization helping other not-for-profit organizations and low income individuals get computers. Several years ago we were also approved as a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher. That program has since changed and we’re now a Microsoft Registered Refurbisher (the difference being scale and not-for-profit). And for about 10 years now we’ve also been big fans of open source software and Linux.
The project is open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 6pm (after 4pm only on the door on Charles Street) and Saturday from 10am to 4pm (only on the Charles Street door). The official street address of The Working Centre is 66 Queen Street South, but there’s no parking on Queen Street South and the doors are closed at 4pm and on Saturday. Sunday and Monday we are closed (please do not attempt to drop off items at The Working Centre’s job search resource on these days). Our door on Charles Street has no official number, but 66 Queen Street South is located on the corner of Queen and Charles Street just up from the bus station in downtown Kitchener.
Please feel free to call the shop at (519)743-1151 x225. For larger donations (20+ Pentium 4 computers) please email cr@theworkingcentre.org or call (519)743-1151 x121. Interested in a Linux or Windows PC please email cr@theworkingcentre.org as demand is very high. Please note that Windows PCs are only available to low income individuals and non-profit organizations. Linux PCs are available to anyone. More details about donating, volunteering, and the systems we make available can be found on The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Website: http://www.theworkingcentre.org/cr/.
Computers scheduled to be rebuilt